[Nvidia] GTX 670 SLI or??

[dookiepower]

Hey guys, New build coming up in the middle of September. Having some trouble deciding on what gpu I want to end up going with. I want to be able to really handle most anything on max settings at 2560x1600, i know that it's not always possible but I have the funds to venture into some of the high end terrain territory.
Going to be playing 2560x1600 and most likely moving to a multi-monitor solution in the somewhat near future (6-9 months). I would like to stick with Nvidia as they have always served me well in the past, but am not totally against a team red solution. I was originally dead set on going with a pair of GTX 670 4gb, reason for the 4 gb is moving to a multi-monitor solution it makes more sense to me to have 4gb of vram buffer. I am however now lost with the release of the gtx 660ti.

I have the funds to tri-sli the 660's or even the 670's, but then i run into the problem of how to keep those gpu's cool without having to throw waterblocks on them. I've got a haf x so airflow is nice, but I'm worried that it wouldn't be enough to handle tri-sli on air. So my dilemma is where to turn? Do I stick with the original idea of 2x 670 4gb, or venture into tri-sli terrain? Mobo does have a PLX chip so Pcie Bandwith is not an issue on the tri-sli. Any information or help that you guys have would be great..

2xGTX 670 4gb
3xGTX 660ti 3g
or ??

System specs for some background info..
i7 3770k
Asus Maximus V Extreme
8GB Trident X @1866

Thanks in advance for the help guys, any suggestions or comments would be great, Thanks!

 

[dalmvern]

If you have the money for it...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121636

That thing is a beast.

 

[mindless728]

Well the best way to do this by looking at your board is to put the cards into the first red slot, the black slot, and the last red slot (which are pci slo placements 1,4,7).

With dual slot gpu's (like the GTX670), this will give you an extra slot for cooling between the gpus which should help keep them cool

 

[arzbhatia]

Go for the GTX 690 if possible (Single)

 

[CaedenV]

I am a big fan of nVidia, but if you are looking at moving to a 3 monitor gaming setup at those types of resolutions then you will probably want to look more at the AMD side of the street as they tend to handle higher resolutions more gracefully than nVidia does.

As others have said, you want to go with the biggest single card that you can afford if you have the money to do it as those resolutions will bring any card to it's knees (especially with any AA or AF processing going on). When you move to a triple head setup you will then want to get a 2nd such card to help take some of the impact from the added 2 screens.
A 670 will make games playable at your current resolution, but not necessarily with full quality.

 

[pacioli]

http://www.guru3d.com/article/inno3d-geforce-gtx-660-ti-ichill-review/24
Here you can see that Tri SLI 660 Ti and Tri SLI 670 are about the same... I'd go for Tri 660 Ti over dual 670. You can also see that tri 660 Ti is about the same as dual 680 or a single 690 (same thing)

 

[dookiepower]

Thanks for the quick replies guys! I have looked into the 690 and went as far as actually buying one but i ended up returning it. The 2gb per gpu is what made me reconsider.. I just wasnt sure if that would be enough for heavily modded games which can go over the 2gb threshold. I would love the 690 if it had the 4gb per gpu. Perhaps the Mars iii but that will most likely be too much $$.
I wouldnt rule the 690 out tho.
Anyone with 2560x1600 experience want to chime in??
Again thanks guys!

 

[pacioli]

It isn't 2 gb per GPU...in SLI the memory is mirrored so the reality is the 690 with 4gb is the same as two 4 gb GTX 680s.
Two GTX 680s with 2 gb each would mean the effective memory is 2 gb. If you have a 4 gb 680 and a 2 gb 680 the effective memory would only be what is on the smaller card... which is 2 gb... two 680s with 4 gb memory has an effective memory of 4 gb...
2560 x 1600 is where the 4 gb comes in handy.

 

[CaedenV]

Ram in SLI is mirrored among all GPUs, it is not divided between them.

The nice thing about the 690 (or 590 and other such duel cards) is that you do not have redundant memory being wasted. The full 4GB of ram is available to both processors, and should be enough for high resolution games.

 

[Inferno1217]

Agreed +1 GTX 690 Cooler less power consumption. i have one and love it. They also overclock very well. They are very quiet and look awesome.

 

[dookiepower]

so it seems like the GTX 690 is the overall winner. For the foreseeable future at 2560x1600 should the 690 be sufficient?

 

[Inferno1217]

More than sufficient.

 

[arzbhatia]

so it seems like the GTX 690 is the overall winner. For the foreseeable future at 2560x1600 should the 690 be sufficient?

Yes! More than JUST sufficient mate. It can even handle resolutions above those easily!